CG and Frontier progress to ball hockey play-off semi-finals
CG Insurance and Frontier have secured their spots in the semi-finals of the Bermuda Ball Hockey Association play-offs.
The two teams sealed their qualification in Wednesday’s second matches of the best -of-three first-round playoffs at Pembroke Community Club, with CG beating Hamilton Princess 7-5 to advance to the next stage and Frontier easing through with an 8-3 win over Applied Computer Technologies.
John King, a Frontier defenceman, praised the effort displayed by his team in the two matches.
“We are happy to be in the semis and it was a good team win,’’ King told The Royal Gazette. “It was a hard-fought two games.
“We played really well and we’re looking forward to the next round. We’re not really focused on who we’re playing, just on our own game and looking to go all the way.
“Coming off a win last week, we came with the same strategy. Our plan was to just play a good, solid defensive game and get opportunities to score when we can.
“We finished second and we believe what we did during the season is good enough.
“Whoever we may get, we’re just looking forward to the challenge. We want to bring our A-game, put up a good battle and hopefully come out on top.”
CG captain Jeremy Estey praised Princess for coming out stronger in the second leg.
“Hamilton Princess played a really strong game and competed hard to the end,’’ Estey said.
“We had two goals each from Chris Cairns and Andrew Leavy that gave us leads but Hamilton Princess fought back and tied the game at 5-5 late in the third.
“That’s when Jeff Burnett and Akil Kapur stepped up to seal the victory with late goals. We are looking forward to our semi-final match-up.”
Frontier and CG will now wait for the rest of the quarter-finals to conclude, before they know who they are facing.
BDA Spirits clash with Appleby in the first match on Friday looking to hold off the defending champions. Spirits triumphed 5-4 in overtime in the first match and Appleby will seek to take the contest into the third leg with a win.
Spine and Sport won 4-1 against Positive Image, Dental and another win on Friday would be enough to send them to the last four of the play-offs.